Generally, optical lenses need to be cleaned before and after a sputtering process so as to remove contaminants on surfaces of the optical lenses therefrom, such as oil, dust. In the cleaning process, the optical lenses each should be held or clamped by some apparatus to avoid the optical lenses sticking to or impacting with each other.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional apparatus 30 for holding optical lenses 40 is shown. The apparatus 30 includes three holding posts 302 for holding the optical lenses 40 therebetween. Each of the holding posts 302 includes a plurality of V-shaped grooves 304 defined therein. Openings of the grooves 304 each have a greater breadth than that of the optical lenses 40. The optical lenses 40 are each held and supported by the three holding posts 302 in such a manner that the optical lenses 40 each have edges partly received in the corresponding grooves 304 of the holding posts 302. However, the edges of the optical lenses 40 in the grooves 304 do not come into contact with water, and are accordingly left uncleaned. Furthermore, the apparatus 30 is hard to operate because the three holding posts 302 need to be adjusted simultaneously for tightly holding the optical lenses 40.
What is needed, therefore, is an apparatus for holding the optical lenses during a cleaning process that is generally easy to operate and cleans effectively.